Arch Linux

iZ3r0

Member

Registered: 2021-08-22

Posts: 1

Fan control issues

Hello, I want to disable the fan control and let the bios control them, as I already have my curves set there.
`fancontrol` in the OS does not work for me.

I did everything as said in the wiki, (installing lm_sensors, running sensor-detect, pwmconfig) but `sensors` show all the fans at 0rpm, and during the configuration, when they should go at maximum speed, do not.
Running `fancontrol` i get `Some mandatory settings missing, please check your config file!`
I tried multiple times, with default settings, and saying YES to all when configuring, rebooting also didn't help.
I also tried setting the acpi flag in grub config as in the wiki.

I searched for solutions but couldn't find anything beside the same as the official wiki.

So I uninstalled lm_sensors and fancontrol, to let the bios control the fan, but after rebooting it is the same.

I already have my fan curves set in UEFI bios, and they spin up correctly during boot, but as soon as the kernel is loaded, they spin down, ignoring my bios config.

I must be missing something.

During load, the fans spin up a little bit, but I already have experienced shutdowns and reboots, probably because of overheating.

I would prefer to have a working fan control in the OS, but I don't know how to make it work, and the bios config is also fine.
I need to fix this issue one way or another and I need help.

Thanks!

OS: Arch Linux x86_64
Kernel: 5.10.60-1-lts
Shell: bash 5.1.8
DE: Plasma 5.22.4
WM: KWin
CPU: Intel i5-7600K (4) @ 4.200GHz
GPU: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 970
Memory: 3001MiB / 15934MiB
Mobo: Asus Strix Z270-E

08d09

Member

Registered: 2020-05-10

Posts: 12

Re: Fan control issues

Could you post the output of sensors and take a look at /sys/class/hwmon? That directory has several numbered subdirectories for sensors and ICs, for example hwmon0 can be your superIO chip that controls the fans, hwmon1 can be your GPU, etc. cat  /sys/class/hwmon/*/name can help you identify which is which. If your motherboard's superIO chip has an entry/directory you should enter it and check the values of the files pwm*_enable where * is a digit. If the value is 2+ that means auto i.e. Linux doesn't touch the curve set in the BIOS, if it is 1 then manual control is enabled and something on your system is controlling your fans. I don't know what's causing it if your fans are behaving that way despite being in auto mode but a program is definitely causing it if they are under manual control.

Wild Penguin

Member

Registered: 2015-03-19

Posts: 320

Re: Fan control issues

Hi,

There are a few misconceptions here. First, as 08d09 said, Linux does nothing to the BIOS fan curves unless you tell it to. Also, you run sensors-detect if and only if you are missing some sensor information and need to read them *or* need fan control and the OS has not detected these. This will only find sensor/super-IO-chips and the kernel modules required for them. Just by running sensors-detect lm-sensors still does nothing to the fans, and you need to set up and run fancontrol if and only if you need manual control; i.e. in your case, don't!

Post the

• contents of /etc/sensors.d/* (all files, if any exist),

• output of 'sensors' command and

• output of sensors-detect

But really, it makes sense to run sensors-detect if and only if you don't get sensor readings and need them; also read the man page - it might not be safe! So, you may want to skip the last point above.

This is pure speculation, but one possibility is that the Asus board has some proprietary implementation of something (ACPI?), and this implementation does not play nicely with anything else than Windows and ASUSs drivers. I.e. supposedly you need a driver on Windows, but as this driver never talks with the Asus BIOS (obviously since you're running Linux), but something in the BIOS notices some OS has loaded, the BIOS decides to stop controlling the fans. I know, it sucks, but manufacturers (ASUS is one of the notorious ones) are known for pulling non-standard shenanigans which makes it difficult to run anything else than Windows.

To confirm the above speculation, we need to confirm whether the fan control actually works at all, only in Windows or some other Linux installation. To do that, you could try both of the following things:

1. Boot some Live Linux. Do CPU-intensive tasks. Does BIOS fan curves work now?

2. Boot into Windows (if available), same as above (let the system heat up somehow). Does BIOS fan curves work now?

Last edited by Wild Penguin (2021-08-24 09:03:12)